Book One Part One
Ow... Ok Who's the prick that shined a torch in my face?
Wait, where-
The panic set in as soon as her vision returned along with a healthy dose of fear. Gone was the sound of convention attendants and the chatter of hundreds of voices, replaced the howl of a blizzard raging in the distance and clanking shudder of heavy machinery. A city with houses and tall towers comprised of black, jagged crystal surrounded her and in the distance she could make out several small equine-like creatures chained to a massive wooden valve or wheel of some sort as they continuously moved round in a circle to keep it in motion.
She looked around frantically, only to be smacked in the face by her bright orange hair and flinched as the metal ring on the end of her braid hit her cheek. The cold metal snapped her back to her senses and she looked down to find herself still in her Mercy Sigrún outfit, though something felt off. The outfit felt heavier, the fur and fabric out of the costume had more weight and padding to it and the metal armor the protected her bust, as well the metal wrist guards, the fancy winged headpiece and her wings felt like actual metal and there was a noticeable weight on her left hip. She looked down to see the hilt of the costumes short sword was no longer a plastic replica.
"The Fuck?" She exclaimed only to be startled again, this time by her own voice. "I-why do I sound like-?"
She forced herself to keep standing as she trembled in fear and the full weight of the situation sunk in. The abrupt change in both appearance and location was far more than she could handle. She instinctively smiled as a reflex to her rapidly rising stress levels.
Her mind reeled as she forced herself to move, her steps unsteady in her knee high, fur trimmed black boots. Tears threatened to spill down her face and she felt a lump forming in her throat as she used every ounce of strength to keep what was left of her composure from breaking. She was lost, confused and very much out of her element as she walked further down what could only be identified as a street from the frequent appearance of recognizable buildings carved out of the same crystal as the rest of the area.
The few inhabitants that weren't doing some form of labor simply stared at her with blank expressions as she passed them by, She noticed many looked malnourished or showed signs of a poorly healed injury or lack of sleep. Her selfishness and fear warred against a strong desire to help and much to her surprise, she knew how to help them.
Knowledge of healing spells, recipes to heal to the sick and nourish the weak sprung to the forefront of her thoughts and as she observed the very real slave labor happening in front of her, she paused and blinked as she realized something important.
For the first time in my life, I can actually do something other than just offer emotional support, I can help people...
I can be useful...
She patted herself down and pulled out a small cylinder with bright yellow button on one side. She pushed it and the cylinder expanded into a familiar staff. She gripped the Cadacues Staff in her left hand as she felt the warm tingle of her magic awaken and flow into it ready to be used. A part of her wanted to go to work and begin healing the populace but that was out weighed by the oppressive atmosphere of the situation. She spotted a palace that towered over the other buildings and stowed her staff back into it's leather pouch on her hip.
"It would be best not to play vigilante," she muttered to herself and frowned. "Am I still an Aussie if I sound German? wait, I'm Mercy now, do I go by her name or mine?"
She sighed and massaged her forehead to relieve herself of a rapidly forming headache. Magic gathered in her fingertips, the pain faded away and she quickly realized she had cast a spell to heal herself. The answer of why she did so quickly made itself known.
"And to top it all off, I'm a Valkyrie! Fucking great!" she commented sarcastically and started walking towards the palace with an added "Fuck this shit!" for good measure.
As she headed closer to the large crystal palace she noticed several ponies clad from head to hoof in steel plate armor with a decorative black mane on the helmet. Their movements were precise and synchronized as they patrolled in the streets in groups of two. She watched them from an alleyway as they briefly interacted with a young mare looking after a group of foals as they laughed and played nearby and unlike the adults, they were brightly coloured and lacked the tired, washed-out look of the older ponies. She paused and felt that the proper term for these equines was indeed Ponies, Crystal ponies if her instincts were correct. She could tell the foal sitter was stressed and frightened as she responded to the armored ponies with short, curt replies and eventually, the armor wearing ponies left and the mare relaxed.
They must be guards, just what on earth is going here? Everyone is either starving or wounded yet there's infrastructure to have guards and those foals are perfectly healthy!
With her curiosity fresh in her mind, the Valkyrie continued on wards,only to be stopped not five minutes later by some guards. Now that she was close to them, she could sense that there were a stallion inside each set of armor and that they weren't moving under their own power.
The ponies within the metal suit were out cold.
"Halt, this area is restricted." the guard one her right droned in flat monotone.
"I just need to speak to whoever's in charge-" She began but was interupted by the guard on her left.
"Your failure to obey has been noted, your travelling privileges have been revoked, we will now escort you to your new post," the guard stated and added. "Obey or you will be presented to King Sombra for punishment or imprisonment."
"Wat." She said flatly.
"Your compliance has been noted," the other guard droned. "Follow and Obey."
The Valkyrie was left extremely puzzled as she followed a guard with the second marching behind her.
The fuck?
She found herself shoved into a dimly lit mine. Ponies with muted colours and of varying ages worked tirelessly with pickaxe in mouth or hoof to chip away at the rock. She silently observed as a mare dug out a blue, faintly glowing crystal from the rock and shuffled over to a minecart to add the crystal to the pile of matching shards already inside.
She looked around nervously, uncertain of what to do. Should she help the miners? Should she start working alongside them? Maybe she should try to escape?
The sound of a pick striking the stone wall rang louder than the rest as an elderly stallion grunted as he tried to pry out a large gem with his pick. He heaved and with a final tug, the gem came loose with a scattering of pebbles. The cave rumbled as cracks appeared and rocks loosened from where the gem was embedded and before anyone could react, the exit was blocked and everything became shrouded in darkness.
She pulled herself up from the cold ground, she hissed in pain as blood tricked down her face from where a rock left a gash over her left eye. She stood silently for a moment as her magic healed the wound and once her mind was cleared from the pain induced haze, she wiped away the blood with a wrist guard and took stock of the situation.
I'm healing thankfully, the damaged eye doesn't matter, born blind in that one anyway.
We're trapped, no light and limited air. I can fix those with an air purification vortex designed to heal smoke inhalation.
...Good, now to check...Some outside force is keeping these ponies alive despite their injuries, Eh I'll take what I can get, time to get to work. I have a distinct feeling that I should be scared shitless right now but I'm not.
Must be the newfound magic and medical knowledge I have, either that or I'm so stressed out I no longer give a shit.
Whatever works.
She pulled out her staff and with a thought and the press of a button a stream of golden, glowing magic flowed towards the nearest pony and healed their injuries in a matter of seconds. The pony, a young mare in her early teens, groaned as she came to. The pony and Valkyrie stared at one other for a moment before the mare spoke.
"What did you do?" the pony asked as the medic moved on to heal another downed miner and as soon as the teen noticed the use of magic, immediately protested against it.
"Stop! Using magic is forbidden, if the king finds out-"
"So you want everyone to stay like this?" the healer drawled. "A life of constant pain and suffering which I am amending in seconds?"
"Well, no but we don't have a choice!"
"Alright, why don't you fill me in while I work, not like I have anything else to lose." the human turned Valkyrie replied with a sigh.
"Alright everyone," she said as she finished healing the last miner. "We need to dig our way out and when we do I'll gladly turn myself over to King Sombra alright?"
"Just like that?" a pony asked. "Why?"
She sighed and fiddled with her braid as she explained. "I uh, don't have anywhere to go and from what you've all told me, my best bet is to prove my usefulness and hope I get a job as a servant in the palace, I'm certainly exotic enough to catch his interest, magic or not."
"Nopony who's entered the palace has been seen since!" a middle aged mare replied fearfully. "You should just escape while you can."
"And go where exactly?" the Valkyrie snarked.
The conversation was interrupted by the shifting of rock by the exit. With the loud rumble and clatter of stone the exit was unsealed and two guards marched in.
"Leave the tunnel in an orderly fashion and await further orders," one of the guards droned and as ponies filed out he added. "Your obedience has been noted."
As she followed the ponies out, she heard a deep male voice barking orders.
"I want this area closed off for future inspection and restoration!"
As her eyes adjusted to the outside world she saw that individual giving orders matched what she had been told by the miners.
This was King Sombra. As the king took notice of her and walked over, she steeled her nerves and waited for shit to hit the fan.
"I take it you are responsible for casting magic illegally?" He asked as he observed her.
"Yes I'm-" she began but the king, despite the fact that his muzzle only reached up to her shoulders, proved to be intimidating as he locked her in his telekinetic grip.
"You will be taken to the palace for questioning," he growled. "If you try to flee your life will be forfeit, am I clear?"
"Ok." she squeaked.
"Good," he stated and turned his attention to the miners. "Return to your homes immediately! You are to remain on standby until further notice."
The ponies bowed in acknowledgement and began to shuffle away once the king turned his back and started walking to the palace with the new arrival in tow. For her part, the Valkyrie remained silent as she floated behind King Sombra. The fear and stress of the situation was starting eat away at her again but with, deep calm breaths she kept her frazzled emotions in check and found a distraction by staring at the king's red, fur trimmed cape.
Don't think about it, don't think about-Mum's left all alone, who will-
Don't think about it, look at the cape. It looks nice, looks fluffy and-I have no way to goHomeWhatDoIDoNow?
Don't think about it! I mean who cares if ICan'tGoHomeAndI'mStuckInABodyThat'sNotMine-
I dunno what to do...
The loud boom of a door opening pulled her from her thoughts just as she was unceremoniously dumped into a dark room and bound to the floor by black, crystalline chains shackled to her wrists. She stumbled and quickly found it easier to sit cross-legged on the floor than to try and stand with the weight of the chains.
The sound of metal hoofbeats rang throughout the mostly silent room as the King walked in and stood staring down at her.
"What are you?" he asked in a clipped, no nonsense tone.
"My name is-"
"I don't care about your name," he snapped. "What are you?"
"A Valkyrie..." she meekly replied.
The king paused and hummed in thought.
"I am unfamiliar with such a creature, explain." he demanded.
"I-um, I'm an entity that traditionally serves-and is an extension of- a higher power. Valkyries often watch over many aspects of combat, they can even decide who lives and dies on the battlefield and are most well-known for taking the souls of warriors they deem worthy to feast alongside the gods in the afterlife." she said, able to keep her voice steady despite her fear.
"I see..." King Sombra mused. "What is the extent of your magical capability?"
"Healing," she automatically replied. "I have spells for nearly every kind of ailment and situation that would require medical assistance."
Wait I do? she thought. Holy shit...I'm a doctor, a legit magical GP.
"You could prove useful, if what you say is true," the king stated. "Very well, I present to you a challenge and should you win I will give you a place within my court, lose and you will be tried for unlawful use of magic. Understand?"
"Yes, your majesty." she replied.
"I've no doubt you've seen the state of my workers, fragile things that they are and so if you can see to restoring the health of my subjects, you win," he said and grinned wickedly. "You have one week. This should be a simple task, if your skill is as great as you claim it to be."
The Valkyrie stood outside the palace as the doors closed behind her. She looked around helplessly as guards marched past on their patrol around the crystal covered streets.
The fuck do I do now? How do I even begin to approach this-this challenge? she thought in confusion.
"Um, excuse me." voice said and the Valkyrie looked over to see the teen aged mare from before trying to get her attention. The young pony had a washed out purple coat, brown mane and tail and green eyes with a symbol on her flank that was a snapshot of a tapestry being woven into creation.
"Yes?" she replied.
"I just wanted to ask um, did the king give you a challenge?" the young mare asked. "If you need some help getting around I could, help you..."
"Oh thank god, Yes I could use some assistance."
"Great!" the mare brightened up considerably. "My name's Fable Weaver, I'll take you to a quieter part of town while you tell me what you have to do."
"One week?" Fable replied in shock. "How are you going to pull that off?"
"Well, First I need to be sure what I'm capable of, once my limits are known there are a few ways i could complete the task, provided I could get everyone into a single space for a time." the healer replied. "I seem to be, shall we say Equipped with a multipurpose spell that could do the job, but if what happened in the mines is anything to go by, I'm not an endurance caster."
"What do you mean?" Fable asked
"I spent about five minutes in total healing everyone and by that time I was starting to lose concentration and I'm sure if I kept going I would've likely put my body through some serious strain." She explained.
Knowing all of this automatically is weird, weird but useful She thought.
"Oh, so what we do?" Fable asked.
"Hm, what do you people do for food?" the Valkyrie asked.
"We used to have lots of things, Crystal Berry Trees, Cloud Sheep Milk, Stone Folwers and Snow Folwers for eggs and Wheat Stone." Fable explained. "Now we just have unprocessed wheat stone, the king says it's more efficient."
"No one is looking after the other crops or livestock?"
"No, we all take turns to check on them but we haven't been able to harvest anything for months," Fable replied. "It's a good thing all our produce can last without spoiling for a long time. But you're welcome to take what you need though, whenever the king gives out a challenge the pony can do whatever they want to complete it as long as it doesn't interfere with the workers in the mines or those working on the grinder."
"I have a recipe in mind, what time does everyone get off work?" the Valkyrie asked.
"Midnight, why?" Fable asked.
"I'm going to take a look at these crystal berries and wheat stone...."
When they reached the orchard, both of them could see the impact King Sombra's takeover had on the land, trees went unharvested, buckets filled with hundreds of shiny crystal berries stood by a half filled wagon, waiting to be delivered.
"I can pull the wagon!" Fable offered. "There's a wheat stone farm not far from here that has a lot of cooking supplies and stuff for a bakery the family runs, I'm sure they wouldn't mind us using them!"
Fable went to hitch herself up to the wagon while the doctor went and examined one of the berries. She hummed in satisfaction at her findings and looked over at the berries still hanging on the trees.
I'm going to need all of them for this to work, I know a spell that used for the safe transport of critically injured patients,
I wonder if I can just tweak it... she thought and concentrated, the spell formula ran through her head and with a few alterations and the application of her will, the berries were surrounded by a blue aura.
Tink!
The fruits moved as one and floated off the trees and into the empty barrels.
Tink!
The barrels turned blue and floated onto the wagon. with a clunk they landed safely and the Valkyrie sighed in relief as a sense of discomfort made itself known in her forehead and back. She was mentally strained and only had enough presence of mind to simply blink at what could be described as flavor text that popped up in her line of sight.
* You learned Blue Magic!
* Gravity is yours to command with this levitation spell, turns the target blue.
"Nope, not dealing with this right now," she muttered and turned her attention to Fable, who was staring at her in awe. "Which way to the wheat stone farm?"
"This way!" Fable squeaked and scrambled to turn the wagon in the right direction.
Midnight had arrived and as the tired, hungry workers shuffled towards their homes, something caught their attention. the central plaza was filled with tables laden with bowls filled with a warm mixture made of wheat stone and crystal berries that resembled porridge. At the back of the proceedings was a giant pot with more of the mixture being stirred by the bipedal figure many had seen around town that day.
"Free food! Get a hot meal here!" Fable shouted at the top of her lungs while the Valkyrie kept a close eye on the magically infused mixture. Her hands and arms were sore from the constant casting she had to do for the mixture to be potent enough to actually heal anyone but she pushed past the pain, there was too much at stake now.
One by one, ponies shambled in and tried her cooking, upon expressing delight and happy hums from tasting the fruits of her labor, others were tempted to try it out and soon she had the entire place packed and then some as every pony from all around the city congregated to try her food.
Hours later, she saw the signs of the magic taking effect, wounds both old and new gradually healed and sickness and malnutrition vanished in an instant. Though there were still many that needed her attention, she felt satisfied at the head start she had been able to give herself.
The next six days were busy as she and Fable, along with the other miners she had rescued, worked to prepare food for the workers, it was repetitive work and the Valkyrie felt the eyes of the king on her every time she set up shop in the plaza but the flavor text summed up her thoughts nicely.
* Despite everything, it's still you!
At the end of the final day, she was escorted to the palace by guards once again and was led to the throne room. There King Sombra sat waiting on a large black crystal throne, just as intimidating as the first time the two had met a week prior.
"Your solution to the task I gave you was certainly creative," Sombra mused. "But effective, it appears you are of use to me after all."
"Happy to be of service, your majesty." the Valkyrie replied quietly.
"You are now The Crystal Empire's Royal Healer, as in accordance to the law you shall report to the servants quarters and respond only to your new title, Understood Healer?" the king stated curtly.
"Yes sir."
"Good, you start tomorrow, dismissed."
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Yay! Part one is up!
8356426
yup, enjoy!
8356437
I did
Well I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I'm gonna enjoy this.
Have mercy on my puns please.
8356562
I'm glad you like it so far and pun all you like!
Is she gonna get fucked up by Celestia and trapped for a thousand years?
A small warning: Being turned to stone is just one of many cliches of the Displaced.
8356612
Spoilers!!!
I do have something planned, have patience.
8356619 cliches aren't bad on their own. It's how you use them.
OMG ITS MERCY!!!!!! She my main I have 100 hours on her
8357840
I main Mercy too, even though I don't play the game much.
Enjoying the story?
8358300
I'm going to read today
8358328
Let me know what you think.
8356619
Trapped in stone why not trapped with sombra I don't think I've ever seen that actually
8359144
Oh dear lord, that'd be funny.
8359144
8359171
Right, well I guess I have a reason to hurry and finish the next chapter.
I do hope you're all enjoying what I've done so far.
Words seem to be missing, all good though!
Haha yes! Undertale references!
I
shall we say Equipped with
I
several questions
1) do you mean Flowers.
2) how do you use a snow flower as an egg.
3)Did you make up Wheat Stone because when I looked it up I only got the circuit.
It's a good thing all of our produce
I think you meant “the Valkyrie kept a close look at the magically infused mixture”
8697313
I'll get around to fixing those typos. As for the wheat stone and fowlers, I made those up to add more wildlife and different kinds of produce the Crystal Empire could have. Fowlers are birds, given that they lay eggs and the word fowl is part of the name...Think fantasy chickens...